Chronicles of Elyria companion project Kingdoms of Elyria: Settlements is still set to get an alpha test before the end of the year, but several developments over at Soulborn Studios mean they are extending development time on the project instead of rushing to make a planned 2023 release.
The announcements were made in a new update blog by Jeromy “Caspian” Walsh, and reflect on the past few months and the future of KoE and impact Chronicles of Elyria. First off, Walsh began researching options for his work on the CoE server platform, specifically the Spirit Protocol driving it. “The Spirit Protocol serves as the new transport layer network protocol for all current and future games built on the Soulborn Engine”, so he spent time looking for solutions that would be flexible and scale as needed.
Through this work, Walsh discovered that There wasn't anything perfect for their goals so they're continuing to actively develop their platform to incorporate features from existing systems.
One of the bigger pieces of news in the post is the licensing of the Soulborn Engine to an unidentified company that is “focused primarily on Mobile MMOs”. This deal, once completely signed, will let the studio worry less about revenue and continue developing their engine and platform, which in turn, affected their decision to alter their release strategy. Walsh plans to spend the next month getting that deal finalized, but once that's done, they're looking at preparing to open extended alpha and beta testing and take their time.
“As we've observed from the recent release of Baldur's Gate 3, players appreciate a polished and rock-solid experience out of the gate (pun intended). With our first license agreement in place, the financial pressure on the studio has eased somewhat, so we have some new flexibility.”
In order to open an alpha test by the end of the year, work needs to be done on systems like ai, animation, and physics, as well as additional gameplay. Walsh promises a developer Journal later in the month with additional information.